Many parents encounter problems when initially training their children to clean their teeth correctly. Not only should the child be encouraged to clean his or her teeth, but also to develop good habits when cleaning, and to discourage bad habits.
There is a relatively large number of prior art devices that may address this problem. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,845,041 (John Gatzemeyer et al.) generally discusses a toothbrush including an input and a memory for storing audio signals received via the input, and an output for playing the stored audio signals. The general idea is that a user can input his or her own content (e.g., music, etc.) from an external device (e.g., a CD/DVD player or download from the Internet) into the memory. The content may then be played back to the user while brushing his or her teeth, thus encouraging the user to use the toothbrush. In some prior devices of this kind, the length of the recording/playback period may be chosen to correspond with a period (often around 2 minutes) of use of the toothbrush as recommended for good oral health.
While toothbrushes of this general type may enhance the cleaning activity, they do not provide any feedback on how the toothbrush is being used. This can make them unsuitable for training proper teeth cleaning techniques.
A toothbrush training system that does provide real-time feedback and tuition on use of a toothbrush is generally discussed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2014/0065588 A1 (Dov Jacobson et. al). This system includes an instrumented toothbrush with optional feedback elements that interact with a real-time dynamic audio-visual program, which provides guidance, assessment, and feedback to the user on correct brushing techniques.
In one embodiment, Jacobson et al. generally discusses a system including the instrumented toothbrush, a multimedia controller containing an application program, a wireless transceiver for communication between the toothbrush and the controller, a visual display (such as a television display or a computer monitor), and a remote audio system.
While the system disclosed by Jacobson et al. may provide comprehensive feedback and training to a user, its complexity, including all the peripheral devices, is likely to make it attractive to high-end users only—i.e., those who already have all the peripheral devices and can afford the cost of the instrumented toothbrush.
Biting the toothbrush is one bad habit often displayed by young children when learning to use a toothbrush. Jacobson et al. does not disclose a toothbrush that detects biting.
Accordingly, it may be beneficial to provide a relatively simple and inexpensive toothbrush and training system that may be used in training any young child the correct use of a toothbrush, and especially to detect and discourage the child from biting the head of the toothbrush.